Just call me Martha

Sunday, December 21, 2014

The last few weeks before Christmas is always a very busy time for me, final school year activities, High school exams, preparations for Christmas and final year cake orders. Here is a snippet of what was created in the last couple of weeks. A super cute, yet simple glamping cake for Lil's daughter who styled a Glamping party over at Lily Chic Events﻿ (photography by Lee Bird Photography)

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I also created a watering can for Imara's grade 2 teacher who's a lovely, sweet Irish lady (hence the shamrocks in the mixed bunch of flowers). The main cake was strawberry buttercake, the rest all fondant/flower paste. It took FOREVER to make all the flowers (and you all know how much I loveeee making flowers lol). Hairy moment at the eleventh hour with the water spout, my original spout was made from rice crispy treats covered in fondant, it was too heavy (which I should have known since I made a similar cake a few years back with the same problem!). So after tearing the cake, making a big hole, having a heart attack, followed by a session of bashing my head against my kitchen table (its ceasar stone, ouch!) I redid the spout in styro covered in fondant. Viola, it was nice and light , but I did swear and worry while trying to fix the hole when fitting the spout. Needless to say Ms Maher was ecstatic with her gift and loved it.

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By far one of my favourite cakes for 2014 was this handbag cake for my youngest daughter's prep teacher. I wanted something bright, cheery, fun and happy just like the teacher's personality I've never made a handbag cake before (raspberry buttercake) and loved the whole process with details. I think I went a bit nuts lol I was inspired by my own Kate Spade bag with a mix of Coco Chanel. I love the Tiffany colour (Coco Chanel... actually made a limited edition version) and was inspired by the scrap of fabric I found in my stash which I covered the cake board in. I also made a sugar Coco Chanel bracelet with no 63 locket (the teacher turned 29 but her colleagues keep telling the preps that she's actually 63 and uses youth cream to look fair and lovely lol). The look on the teacher's face was priceless when she saw her cake, I've never had anyone go that crazy over a cake before lol She adored it, but now wants the actual bag for her 30th ! Better start saving up :-)

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Last but not least a simple one tier fruit Christmas cake inspired by the original designs from A Little Sweetness, I love Tasha's work so much I had to create another cake featuring her super cute birdy.
Thank you to all my lovely customers and supporters, have a wonderful Christmas and safe and happy new year xxx

Monday, November 10, 2014

No party for Annike this year, instead she asked for her bedroom redecorated as her birthday gift. The brief was bright, modern and fun and she asked for a giant budgie painting as focal point as that is Annike's favourite bird. She also wanted aqua in her room as that is one of her favourite colours. Above is the mood board and colour palette for Annike's room. It took 4-6 months to plan, save, buy and then do up her room.﻿

We replaced the curtains with shutter blinds, the brass fan/light system was replaced with a white ceiling fan/light (Beacon lighting), the twin single beds was replaced by a double bed with under storage (from Ikea). We also purchased new linen (from Adairs), bedside table (from Target), study desk and chair from Adairs and study light from Beacon. The painting was designed and painted in acrylic by me (extra large canvas and paint from Riot Art).﻿

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The main painting: As I mentioned Annike wanted a budgie, and a BIG one please. So off I went to Riot art and purchased the biggest canvas I could find, about 1.8 x 1.8 metres (it just fits in my car!!). So after I get home I started getting scared as to how BIG this canvas really is in real life and the last time I painted anything was about 3 years ago. It took about 2 days of staring at the blank canvas and lots of calming breaths before I had the courage to start painting. I had sketched some pre-ideas about 3 weeks prior using photo's of a budgie from different angles and this is the design both Annike and I liked best. It took 1 week of continuous work (9am - 5pm) to complete this piece, we were both very happy with the result. This is acrylic on canvas.﻿

Of course what is a birthday without cake :-) I matched the cake design and colours to Annike's Adairs bed set, the focal point being the sugar Dahlia (which took 3 days to complete, petal by petal). This was a double barrel extended tier in caramel toffee sponge.﻿

Sunday, October 5, 2014

This cute golfing cake was made for a father celebrating his 80th with the family celebration being held at a fancy golf club. All the items (golfing bag, clubs, ball etc) were made from either chocolate or fondant.﻿

I was hoping to avoid Frozen-mania but one of my lovely repeat customers asked me to recreated Elsa, Anna and Olaf with the cake being the castle for her little girls birthday. I kept the figurines fairly simple because I found the faces of the actual characters quite complicated (Original clay figurine design by Mayumi Biscuit). Unless you are very, very good with figurines (which I am not!) if you try to copy the features exactly your figurines could look evil/ugly lol I am happy with how they turned out. All 100% edible (made from sugar paste)﻿

Next up a big box of mixed sugar flowers. Funny how I hate making flowers but it is one of the most requested designs. Lucky for me they are all different so by the time I get bored with one flower it is time to make a different design.﻿

I loved making this sports cake for a sports mad teenager. I saw the original design by Sweet and Saucy and altered the design to suit the birthday boy. I loved how the red and black "popped" in the design scheme. The bottom tier took forever to make using edible black pen, a ruler and a very steady hand.﻿

This petite cake was made for my daughter's 14th birthday. She asked for something small and simple and said she preferred the cake not to be covered in fondant. So I covered a double stacked 4"inch round cake in pastel pink raspberry ganache and topped it with a pink rose gilded in gold.﻿

The original design of this cake is by Miss Couture - Cakes | Cupcakes | Cake pops . This cake took FOREVER to decorate, the ruffles alone took 6 hrs and I lost track of time hand placing all those pearls. The end result was lovely though, very pretty and feminine. ﻿

Pretty cupcakes for a kitchen tea (styled by Coco asked for these), all the toppers are edible and made from fondant. I also had to make matching cookies and pops.﻿

These were also requested by Styled by Coco, this time for a 1st birthday. Again I made matching cookies and pops, hopefully I can share those photo's in a few days time.﻿

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Last Sunday I had the absolute pleasure of creating this super cute dessert table for my 6 year old's birthday party. The idea came after I received the birthday outfit from Gymboree (Cheery all the way Scottie) range and saw how adorable the colours looked together as well as the cute Scottie dog which featured on the T-shirt. I quickly sketched a design, made a mock-up on Powerpoint and sent it to Amity Invites who created the colourful backdrop and printables for the party. I loved how all the colours worked together.

Next I drew and designed the cake, my daughter asked for a BIG cake with doggie topper and there had to be pink involved. The bottom tier was foam covered in fondant and the design reflected the backdrop stripes. The rest of the cake was Mocha walnut buttercake with the middle tier being black ruffles and the top tier sporting a pink edible dog collar with "silver"no 6 heart charm. I also made some matching Scottie dog biscuits, cupcakes, pops and macarons. Needless to say my daughter LOVED the table and declared it her best birthday ever :-)﻿

Sunday, March 17, 2013

If this cake looks familiar then you are correct, a couple of months ago I did a similar one as 3 tiers with an orange water lily topper. This cake was 6 'inch round and almost 7 inch tall Key Lime and Coconut cake for Wendy's 40th birthday. It was certainly a challenge to cover, especially since we've had horribly hot and sticky weather down here in Melbourne! I've also had to use a fair amount of CMC powder to my flower paste to make sure the petals did not "wilt"and droop into a sticky mess. So glad summer is finally over!

I was also asked to make this super cute and paired down version of Thomas the train. Double stacked 7"inch round double chocolate cake. The topper is made from styro and sugar paste so that the topper could be kept as momento. I used one of my children's Thomas lego trains as example :-)

Saturday, March 9, 2013

I loved making these two twin Hello Kitty cakes for two sweet little girls. One cake was vanilla buttercake and the other cake was Choc mud. I used edible textas to write the names on the cake using a homemade stencil. The figurines were made from styro and fondant so they were not only sturdy but light.

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Mad Hatter tea party cake for one of my daughter's best friends. The design was "open" and I could basically make whatever I wanted as long as it was Alice in Wonderland related. Everything made from sugar and 100% edible, except for the florist wire posing as "hat pins" The tea cup and pocket watch took the longest as I had to make them in stages :-) Inspired by Christopher Garrens Cakes, Lisa's cakes and Arte da Ka

This last cake was created for a 5 year old boy whom loved the Olympics. I was asked to make something simple that featured the Olympic flame, running track and had a gold medal. This inspiration came from Nicole Patrick's Confections, Cakes & Creations as she made a similar cake on her Blog page. Cake flavour was raspberry buttercake with raspberry compote frosting.

Monday, February 18, 2013

I know, I know its been AGES since I updated my blog! I haven't forgotten, honest but life has just been so busy that keeping up with Facebook let alone this blog takes up a fair bit of my time. I've been a bit quiet as the last few months have been hectic for me. Our home that we were renting was sold suddenly last year, this meant I had about 4 weeks to look for a new home and find an alternative High school for my eldest daughter. We then moved, I stressed over my new oven and then I turned 40 (yippee, not!), had my family stay for 4 weeks (loved every minute) followed by Christmas. Just as I took a mini breather we were all off on a summer family vacation on a lovely pacific island cruise and came back just before High school, primary school and Kindy started back for my 4 children. That 1st week of back to school kept me VERY busy! But I am back now, just sharing some of the end of 2012 cakes I created such as the fire engine set for my twin Nephews back in November.﻿

Along with a mini 3 tier birdcage cake (inspired by Cotton and crumbs in the UK) for The Sweet Society and the super cute Giggle and Hoot cake for a little boy who lost his father a few months ago through cancer.﻿

Just as I came back from my holiday it was my 3 daughter's 6th birthday and she requested a ruffle Princess cake (her instructions were quite specific how the cake had to look lol).

I then had the challenge to make a black simple cake with balloon for a 40th birthday. I must admit this cake had me stumped at first as I could not work out how to make the balloon topper without the cake looking too childish. In the end I was happy with this design and so was the customer.﻿

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About Me

My name is Leoni Jena and
I am a mum of 4 lovely
but very active young
girls. My hobbies are painting,sewing
and baking. You can contact me at sajena@iprimus.com.au or follow me on Facebook at "Just call me Martha".